Cerebrus
by roxygoth
Summary: When Donald said they needed new security, this was NOT what he meant...
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! I'm back. [It hasn't been very long, I know, but still…] Okay, so this fic takes place when the boys are 7 and they are still on the houseboat. It's based of a scenario I found myself typing in my last fanfic.**

 **Quick note, I hope Donald isn't to out-of-charectr, but he's had a tough day, bless him.**

 **Quick disclaimer, I do not own anything Ducktales related, 1987 or 2017. [Sadly] Anyway, let's crack on!**

Donald was exhausted. It had been a long day in the office, and the thing he was looking forward to when he got home was a cup of coffee and a long hot bath. The boys would be fine for an hour at least. He'd set them up with some coulering or something.

When he finally made it to the houseboat it was to find, much to his horror, that the door was partly open. He ran in, slamming the door open to see Huey sitting calmly at the table, doing his homework. He looked up with what could only be described as complete nonchalance and said.

"Hey Unca' Donald! How'd work go?"

"Why's the door open?" Donald said, angrily, ignoring the question. "And where are your brothers?"

Huey put his pen down. "Dewey and Louie are in our room. We're taking it in turns to guard the door cos' the lock's broken. .."

"The lock's what!?"

"Broken, look." Much to Donalds alarm Huey held out the bottom lock.

"Where'd you get that from!?"

Huey instantly looked guilty as he said. "It fell off…"

Donald folded his arms and glared. "Locks do not just fall of, Hubert. Now, tell me the truth."

He could see the cogs whirring in his nephews brain, until after a few seconds Huey blurted out. "It was an accident! Dewey didn't mean to break it! We were playing and he just touched it and-!"

"DEWFORD!" Donald bellowed. "Get here! now!"

One minute later a subdued Dewey was standing in front of him, looking at the floor.

"What happened to the lock?"

Dewey scratched the back of his head. "It fell off…"

Donald took a breath. "I can see that. How did it fall off?"

"We were just playing pirates! And - and they swing down from their…their…what are they called?" He said, looking at Huey, who promptly responded.

"Masts."

"Their masts. So I did that on the door and it fell off…"

Donald took another breath and nodded. "Right. Thank you for telling me the truth. However that was an INCREDIBLY stupid thing to do, because now we have no lock on the door and therefore no security!"

"You mean anyone could just walk in!?" Louie said, from the doorway. "And kill us?"

As Huey and Dewey gasped, Donald massaged his temple. "No Louie. No one is going to walk in and kill us."

"How'd you know!?"

"Because! Because, I'm going to get some extra security. I'm going to ring the locksmith right now, and get some more locks while you three go over the park to play for a little bit. Alright? I want you all back here in an hour and we'll have some tea. Pizza and chips, how does that sound?"

From the whoops of approval he got, it sounded good.

"Right off you go. Stick _together_ , no talking to any strangers, don't go near any teenagers and if you get scared about something or nervous _come back_ , understand?"

The boys all nodded.

"Right. Off you go then." With that the three of them left, chattering excitedly amongst themselves.


	2. The Puppy

**Hey! I'm back, thanks to everyone who's reviewed, favourite and followed so far. Now, on with the next chapter.**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

As soon as the boys made it the short distance over the road to the park they instantly ran off in different directions.

Huey clambered onto the swings and starting swinging as high as he could possibly go.

Dewey started climbing the tall climbing frame, determined that this time he'd make it to the top.

Louie went onto the basket swing and started swinging on that.

After about five minutes Dewey made it to the top off the climbing frame and, with one hand held securely onto the ropes, pounded the air with the other hand. "Yes! I'm up, I'm up! HUEY! LOUIE! Look at me!"

Huey screeched to a stop, cupping his hands over his eyes as he looked up. "Wow! You made it!"

Louie carried on swinging, but managed to give a thumbs up as he did so which Dewey returned.

Huey jumped off the swing, calling up to his brother. "Hold on, I'll come up. Where's the best place to start?"

"Er…" Dewey stuck his tongue out and looked round the bottom off the climbing frame till his eyes rested on the same place he'd started from. "There!"

"Alright, gimme a minute…"

As Huey started climbing, Dewey kept an eye on him to make sure he wouldn't' fall. After all, Huey had never climbed this high before.

Meanwhile Louie had reached the highest his swing could go without doing a 360 and was looking out across the fields. Then he frowned and squinted. A small black animal was coming down the path, he couldn't see what if it was a dog or a cat, but he saw it go into a little foresty-patch.

Hearing a yelp, Louie immediately turned his head to see that Huey had slipped a little, but was still holding onto the ropes. Dewey was now climbing down to reach Huey.

Louie looked back across the fields. The dog/cat came out. He wondered where it's owner was, then looked back at his brothers. Dewey had his back to him and was clearly trying to coax Huey into climbing further up.

"Guys! I'm going out the park! Back in a minute!" He yelled and waited for a reply.

Huey and Dewey meanwhile looked at each other. "Was that Louie?" Huey asked, still clinging onto the rope.

Dewey nodded. "He'd probably just worried about us. You know what he's like. We're FINE!" He called back, before refocusing on his older brother.

Hearing the 'fine' Louie jumped off the swing and left the park. He saw the animal – which turned out to be a dog- was next to a tall hedge which ran around the park and, to top it off, it had found a burst ball from somewhere and was chewing it. "Hey doggie!" The dog stopped and looked at him, before running up to him with the ball in its mouth. "Wanna play?" Louie asked the dog, before gently taking the deflated ball from the dog's mouth and throwing it.

Meanwhile Huey had managed to climb up the frame a little bit.

"See. Told you, you could do it." Dewey said. Huey stuck his tongue out at him.

"Shut up Dewford."

Dewey laughed, before shielding his eyes with his hand ad looking out across the park. "Hey, can you see Louie?"

The eldest frowned before doing the same. "No…" He said slowly.

They looked at each other. "What did he say?" They said at the same time. "Well, I wasn't listening, I was to busy helping/listening to you!" They said together.

Dewey instantly started climbing sown. "C'mon! We have to find him!"

Being a bit more cautious about it Huey followed his brother. "Oh, Unca' Donald's gonna kill us." He said, going white.

"No he's not."

"Yeah he is! We were meant to stay together! Now we've lost Louie!"

Dewy by now had reached the bottom and waiting for his brothers said. "We havn't lost him, we just…don't know where he is."

Huey paused. "That's literally the def…def…def-i-ni-tion of lost, doofus!"

Dewey flapped his hands. "Well, we'll find him and then he won't be lost, will he? Now c'mon – this way!" And proceeded to run out the park.

"Dewey, wait! We don't know where to start!" Huey finally jumped down and ran after him.

He almost collided with Dewey who had stopped directly outside the entrance. "Ssh. Hear that?" Huey stopped, and listened. Sure enough he could hear laughter. Louie's laughter. The two elder brothers looked at each other before following the sound.

What they saw startled the slightly. Louie was directly behind the big hedge that ran around the park – which explained why they couldn't see him – and was in the middle of throwing a broken football for a small dog.

"Louie, what are you doing?" Huey asked.

Louie threw the ball again, the turned to face them. "Fetch." He said, simply, as the dog ran back to him.

Huey shook his head and checked his watch as Dewey said, angrily.

"What were you playing at!?"

"What 'cha mean?"

"We were worried about you!"

"Me? Why?"

"Er, cos you ran out the park and didn't tell us where you were going you stupid idiot!"

After throwing the ball once again, Louie folded his arms and glared at Dewey. "I did tell you!"

"Did not!"

"Did to!"

"Did NOT!"

"Did TO!"

"When?"

"When you were helping Huey! I said, back in a minute and you yelled fine! Remember?"

Dewey paused. Ah. So that had been what Louie had said. "We didn't hear you…"

"Why'd you reply then?"

"I dunno! Oh c'mon, let's just go home. I want some pizza and chips." Dewey kicked the ground.

"Okay. C'mon!" Much to his older brothers alarm Louie picked the dog up, who seemed quite happy with this and licked his face.

"You are not bringing that back." Huey said, immediately.

"We have to, it doesn't have an owner."

"Don't be stupid, it must have an owner."

Shuffling the dog in his arms Louie said, snarkliy. "What? The invisisbe man? Look 'round you, Hubert. There's no on here!"

Huey ad Dewey looked round, and much like the youngest had said, there was no one there.

"And I'm sure Unca' Donald wouldn't like us to leave a small doggy like this alone, would he? Plus it could be a guard dog till we get more locks!"

"Unca' Donald said he was getting the lock guy round tonight." Huey said, although he knew he was fighting a losing battle.

Sure enough Louie had a reply. "No sane lock guy is going to come out a six o clock at night, is he?"

Six O'clock! Huey groaned. They had to get back. "Fine! Bring the dog with us, just don't blame me when it all goes wrong!"

With that final word, Louie flashed a grin at him, and they all started back.


	3. Cerebus

**Hey! I'm back, thanks to all who've favourite, followed and reviewed so far.**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer and let's crack on.**

It was a rare moment of calm for Donald. He was lying on a deckchair in front of the houseboat, sipping a glass of water and reading the newspaper. As much as he loved his nephews they could be a bit of a handful at times and, in the nicest way possible, he always made the most of them not being there.

A shadow cast over him and Donald looked up to see the lock guy had finished. "Ah, great, thanks! Here…" Donald got his wallet out and fished out the amount they'd agreed. The lock guy touched his cap before setting off.

Donald sighed in content and leaned back in the chair, the newspaper rested over his stomach. Yeah. Life was good.

"Careful, Louie!" His ears pricked up as he head Huey's voice. "You nearly walked into a tree!"

"Yeah well - I didn't, did I?" He heard his youngest nephew snap back. Donald frowned. There was something of about Louie's voice…he sounded out of breath.

Donald sighed and got up, carefully placing the newspaper back on the little table he'd managed to drag out from the back of a cupboard. One sure thing about his life was that it was never boring.

Then he heard it. A yap. Donald blinked. There weren't any dogs that lived around here to his knowledge. The owners were always to worried about them falling in the water. He heard his nephews all shushing something at the same time.

With a familiar feeling of dread in his stomach, he folded his arms and waited for the triplets to come into sight. There was a path leading to the park that had so much foliage around it, the minute anyone walked about a couple of feet into it they disappeared from view. Sure enough thirty seconds later the boys materialised out of thin air.

Donald's eyes immediately latched onto the youngest. He was holding an animal in his arms. Donald couldn't tell if it was a dog or a cat, but he knew one thing for certain, it was not staying with them.

"No, no, no!" Donald said immediately, flapping his arms at them for effect. The boys all immediately came to a stop on the other side off the road. Donald quickly looked left and right – he had to set an example after all – before hurrying over. "No, no, no, no, no! Not happening!"

At seeing their Uncle descend on them with a face like thunder Huey and Dewey smartly stepped back. Louie glared at them before turning the puppy-dog eyes on Donald. "But Uncle Donald-" He bagan.

"No!" Donald held a hand up and fixed his best 'parent glare' on his face. Sure enough Louie clamped his beak shut and looked at the floor. "What is it anyway? A dog or a cat?"

Louie grinned before holding the creature out to him. "A puppy! I found it wondering round the big hedge 'round the outside of the park!"

Donald took a step away from the puppy, before placing his hands on his hips and glaring again. "What do you mean you found him 'outside' the park? You're meant to stay inside the park!"

Louie faltered and drew the puppy back into his chest before looking down at the ground.

At this point Huey and Dewey stepped forward again, Huey swung an arm round his youngest brothers shoulder while Dewey immediately went into explanation mode. "Louie explained it wrong, Uncle Donald." He started. "You see, there wasn't anyone in the park and there was an aban- aban – aban-donned football by the swing and we wanted to play with it. Well Huey said we'd have more space outside, didn't you Huey?" Said triplet nodded and Dewey carried on. "So we went out to the grassy area, but we never got to play because this little fella." At this point the middle triplet patted the dog's head, and it licked his hand in reply. "Burst the ball by biting it. So we looked round for it's owner but, like Louie said, it was empty. So we didn't want to leave a poor defen-defen-defen-sell-less doggy in the park, so we brought it back."

"Uh-huh." Donald was not entirely convinced by this, but let it slide. "Well, I hope you realise it's not staying here."

"But Uncle Donald!" The boys all chimed together.

Said Uncle threw both his hands up. "No! It's not happening. We don't need a dog, we can't afford a dog and a dog would not be happy on the houseboat-"

"-It could be a guard dog." Louie offered, shuffling the dog in his arms a bit.

That stopped Donald short. "What?"

"A guard dog. Huey says it's a Rottweiler puppy, they're quite big aren't they? It could growl at bad guys and then they wouldn't break in while the lock's broken!"

Donald paused taking this in, before massaging his temple with one wing. Now it was making sense… "Boys." He said, calmly. "The lock is fixed. You have literally just missed the lock guy. We have a new better lock on the front door which means that people can't just walk in. Therefore we have no need for a guard dog."

As his nephews were taking this in, Donald carried on. "Also although, Louie, although this little guy is small enough to fit in your arms now Rottweiler's grow very big, and I mean _very_ big. A fully grown one can easily get to be my height, understand?" His nephew looked up at him, before all looking at the puppy who was completely content in Louie's arms, and in fact looked to be asleep. "Now do you understand why I'm not exactly thrilled with the idea of that thing prancing round our houseboat?"

The boys all solemnly nodded. Donald took a breath, before ruffling his boys hair. "Right. So now that's sorted, let's get young Cerebus here back to his owner. It's very likely that there IS an owner and this young creature just decided to race on ahead. No doubt his owners panicking now."

The boys all looked ashamed, realising for the first time what they might have done. "Will he be mad at us?" Huey asked, looking worried.

"What? The dog?" Donald said, confused.

"No! The owner!"

"Oh, the owner! No, no, I think he – or she - will just be glad to get him back. Now, C'mon let's go." With that they all turned back into the foliage and disappeared from sight.


	4. Daisy?

**Hey! I'm back, so here it is, the last chapter. Thanks to everyone who's favourite, followed and reviewed, it means a lot.**

 **Right, so with no further ado, check chapter 1 for the disclaimer and let's crack on.**

As Donald and the boys got closer to the park they could hear someone shouting in the distance.

Huey nervously tugged at Donald's sleeve. "Unca' Donald?"

"Yes, Huey?" Donald said, as he ducked to avoid being hit in the face with a tree branch.

"Do you reckon that's the owner shouting?"

Donald nodded. "Wouldn't surprise me. You lose your pet, first thing you do is call to get it back." By this point they'd reached the end of the path and could see the park clearly. "Right, let's get this over with. Boys?"

He turned around to see the boys had stopped and were all looking at the puppy. "What's wrong?"

"Are you sure it'll be okay?" Louie asked, timidly. "It's so small."

Donald sighed and sat down cross-legged in front of the boys. "Young Cerebus here will be fine, Louie. Trust me, I know he seems to like you but eventually he'll start missing his owner. Also you'll be doing a really good thing by returning it. The owner will be grateful, I promise. Okay?" A pause and then Louie nodded.

Donald smiled and ruffled his hair. "Okay then. Now let's get this young pup back." With that they walked in the direction off the shouting to see a tall women with her hair piled on top of her hair standing in the middle of the field yelling at the top of her lungs.

"Daisy! Daisy!"

The pup barked and the women turned round, relief plastered across her face. The pup struggled in Louie's arms and he reluctantly put it down. It bounded off towards the women, who was now crying. "Oh, Daisy!"

Donald stared in disbelief. "Daisy!? Who in their right mind calls a Rottweiler Daisy!?"

"That women, clearly." Huey said, not understanding that it was a rhetorical question.

Just as Donald was about to explain the women tottered over. "Where did you find her?" She asked him, as the dog happily pranced about her heals.

"Actually I didn't." Donald said, slowing his speech down and doing his best to talk properly. "My nephews did." He patted Huey and Dewey on the shoulders for emphasis.

The women looked confused a moment before understanding dawned. "Oh! Well thank you, children. I'm very pleased, not many people might have done that, some might had walked off with her."

"Well-" Huey began, but Donald gave him a quick tap on the back signalling 'no.'

"Happy to help, mam." He said to the women, bobbing his head a bit.

The women smiled a tad condescendingly at him, before fishing in her purse and giving each triplet a dollar. "Well this is for being such good, honest, boys – and thank you again! C'mon Daisy…" And with that both women and dog happily toddled off.

Donald shook his head as behind him the triplets huddles together. "Well, that went kind of well, I guess…"

"Uncle Donald!" A tugging on his sleeve made him look down and he saw Dewey putting the puppy dog eyes on him. "Cab we get some sweeties?"

Donald was about to say no, but then they all turned to puppy-dog eyes on him and he gave in. They had done well after all. "Oh, alright." They cheered and Donald held up a wing. "But you can't eat them till after dinner, got it?"

"Got it, Uncle Donald." The boys chorused. And with that they went back up the path all talking excitedly.


End file.
